Thursday, July 14, 2011

I received this wine as a sample, and then I saw it at Costco in SoCal piled up on a pallet for $9. I think there is a theme--I tend to get cheap wines that are sold at Costco for samples. I guess maybe because people don't talk about buying wine at Costco much, but I do because I'm kind of lazy? This is about what I expect from a sub-$10 Malbec frankly. Deeply fruity, with some barrel notes. Altogether, a good value for fans of the fruit forward style. You might as well purchase this as opposed to something like a crappy California wine at the same price point. It's a solid and reliable value for the price, just nothing too exciting.

I also picked up a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc because, well it's summer. Screw-capped, $10, and "Sauvignon Blancy." That's another way of saying tropical fruit and cat piss, backed up by sharp acids. Good value. I particularly like Villa Maria as a producer. However, I am finding that more and more I am not enamored with the Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs. I prefer the more subtle and less aggressive wines like Sancerre these days.

Lastly, I had to have one non-lazy wine, which happened to be another bottle of Coenobium Rusticum. This is an orange wine, and worth seeking out for its slightly oxidized, salty, tannic expression of humble white grapes from the Lazio region. Made by Cistercean nuns with the input of Paolo Bea. Absurdly good, different, and balanced. Probably not for everyone, but this is one of my favorite geek wines.